Tag Archive: Holidays

I did this photo scavenger hunt a few times last year, but I wanted to give it a go again since the boyfriend got me a 50mm lens for Christmas, and I love it. It takes such beautiful pictures indoors in low light in particular. These were all taken this week with my new lens!

1. Breakfast

Fall pumpkin spice waffles, yumm.

2. Multi-colored

So, I know there aren’t a LOT of colors involved here, but there are multiple. 🙂 These are the Christmas plates I hung in the kitchen, and I think they’re adorable and had to take a picture before sadly taking them down along with the rest of my Christmas decorations.

3. Starts with the letter C

Moshi is so darned photogenic, every time I turn around he is either handsome or adorable and I feel the need to take a picture of him. Jasmine is beautiful too, but Moshi just has such striking features. And he usually stays still unlike Jasmine. This time he was taking up my spot on the couch and cuddling with my blanket.

4. Roll

On top is a roll of my leftover wrapping paper from this year (for presents that weren’t wrapped in word searches) and the bottom is the roll I got on post-Christmas clearance for next year.

5. Future

This one made me think a bit. Although you can’t see the whole thing in this photo, this is my Doctor Who Tardis blanket (also a Christmas present). Doctor Who episodes often place in the future. I’m also lying down but looking forward… into the future!

2013 is an odd number, which I don’t love, but it could turn out to be an interesting year. Happy New Year, everyone!

This is one of those cute things that people ooh and aah over and go, “You MADE those?! How?” And it’s actually pretty simple, just takes some time as all dipped/decorated things do.

I took these pretzel wreaths to my office’s Christmas Pitch-In, the same day I brought my twinkly green lantern ornament. And they were a hit! A great finger food for a party dessert. Here’s how I made them:

mini pretzel twists

meltable candy drops (you can also use chocolate chips of any sort, anything that will dip and re-harden)

twizzler pull-apart licorice

decorative green edible gel (optional)

First, arrange six pretzels in a circle (or seven if you want a bigger wreath… or just can’t count like me), big hole out and two-hump side in (the direction is important for how they’ll look)

Follow the directions on the candy melting package, or just microwave and stir for 30 seconds at a time until candy/chocolate is melted. Dip each pretzel, then put it back in the circle arrangement.

Next, before the candy on the bottom has hardened, dip six more pretzels and place them in a second layer on top, alternating so each pretzel goes between two on the first layer. Repeat this until the dipping stuff runs out.

After the wreaths are all solid, next comes the ribbon. This took a little bit of trial and error for me. My larger wreaths were too big for the length of the twizzlers, but the normal sized ones were just the right size to weave a strand in and out through the wreath. I tied a bow with another strand and stuck it on top. They aren’t actually attached, but they stay in place so it doesn’t really matter!

Then I added little decorative touches of holly and leaves/dots, just because I thought it would be cute. I used tiny bits of twizzler for the red holly berries and green cake decorating gel for the green stuffs.

I love Christmas lights; when I walk into a room filled with them, I feel like I’m in a magical fairy land. So even though we have a small tree, I added lights in a couple other spots in our apartment, along with some other decorations.

The idea came from a random picture online without a source – it had larger paper that would wrap the whole present. Possibly there is somewhere you can buy custom wrapping paper like that. But I decided to go with the more practical and economical way of making my own word search, wrapping the presents in the standard brown paper (instead of covering up a lovely design on more expensive wrapping paper) and just putting the one piece of paper with the word search on top.

I made my own word search using the names of all the people I was giving presents to using this one on Armored Penguin, printed it out and cut around just the word search, taped it on, and circled in red the name of the person or people whose gift it was.

It’s a fun idea for people who like words and putting a twist on tradition. 🙂

Every year, my office has at least one holiday contest for our Christmas Pitch-in and party. Since I’ve been here, we’ve done desk decorations, ornaments, and ugly sweaters.

My entry for last year’s computer-themed ornament contest

This year, there’s a challenge to make your own ornament with a superhero theme. I won a cake boss contest a couple of months ago with a s’mores cake (I’ll post about that at some point!), but I have tried and failed several times to win a holiday contest. This year, I am trying again!

The person who won last year had an ornament that could light up, which seemed to wow everyone. So I figured that was the key. The nerdy boyfriend of mine came up with the idea of Green Lantern so it would make sense for it to light up, and I liked the idea and ran with it. Even if I haven’t yet seen the movie. It even fits with holiday colors!

Here’s how I made it:

plain plastic/glass ornament

mini LED lights with battery pack

AA batteries

green tissue paper

mod podge

foam brush

Green Lantern logo

First, I checked to make sure the lights worked (I learned the hard way that you should do this from putting lights on our office tree only to find out the whole strand was out!) Then, I stuffed the little lights into the ornament one by one.

Next, I tore up the tissue paper into small pieces. I glued it on by brushing the mod podge only on the spot where I wanted to put a piece, placing it there, and continuing to the next spot until the ornament was covered.

Then I printed out the Green Lantern logo, cut right around it, and mod podged that on, too. I picked an exact spot with a light so the lantern would light up. Finally, I added a ribbon to hang it up, and it was done! The lights blink, too, which is super fun!

Now that it’s December and the magical holiday season is upon us, I plan on doing a lot more posts than usual, because I love it. A lot of them will be shorter, just showing off my decorations and holiday themed stuff, but my goal will be blogging 2-3 times a week this month. Yay!

First up, my Christmas cards. I had never had any interest in sending them before, but I like getting them. I bought these in January at Barnes & Noble for at least half off, and I thought they were adorable. The box only came with 14 cards, so I tried to limit it to mostly people I don’t see often who I thought might like one. If you got one, feel special. I may send out more next year.

I kept it super simple by just writing a message in the store-bought cards.

Most of my handwritten messages were a variation of, “I wish peace, love, and happiness to you this Christmas season.”

I love the envelopes they came with. And I got sheets of blank labels to print out the addresses and return addresses, and bought holiday themed stamps, too.

So excited was I to send my first Christmas cards that I had them ready to go by Thanksgiving, and I mailed them out the weekend after. I’m looking forward to getting a few from my friends as well!

It’s that time again! Needless to say, my photos have a 4th of July theme this week.

1. Patriotic

Where I currently live, my town’s 4th of July parade passes right in front of my apartment complex. This makes it inconvenient to leave for a few hours, but it’s pretty cool that I don’t have to go anywhere to see this fun parade. I thought these balloons, carried by people from a local balloon shop, were fun and very patriotic.

2. View From Above

My delicious strawberry shortcake treat from the Lion’s Club next door being viewed from above.

3. Mosaic

This is a 3D puzzle that the boyfriend put together, a mosaic of clear plastic in the shape of a sapphire diamond.

4. Something Tiny

Moshi has tiny toes, nose, and whiskers. Yes, I love taking pictures of the cats, and Moshi is an especially good model because he actually stays still.

5. Vibrant

If there was just one vibrant thing I saw this week, it was definitely the fireworks. I didn’t take this picture, the boyfriend did, but I love the shot, and I remember this moment in the show with all the pretty, sparkly white ones.